Judd Apatow reunites ‘Freaks and Geeks’ cast for Vanity Fair

Seth Rogen and James Franco at "Pineapple Express" screening in New York.Marion Curtis/Startraksphoto.com

“Freaks and Geeks” was producer Judd Apatow’s passion project that had “just total commitment in every frame of the entire series,” he tells Vanity Fair.

Unfortunately, his blood, sweat and tears did not translate into ratings. After only 18 episodes, the cult coming-of-age drama was dropped.

“We were up against the 10th season of ‘Cops.’ I thought, ‘If we can’t beat the 10th season of ‘Cops’, we don’t deserve to be on the air,’” says Apatow. “And, of course, ‘Cops’ kicked our ass.”

Nonetheless, the beloved show gained cult status after a single season and launched the mega-watt careers of Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jason Segel and Busy Philipps. Apatow recently reunited his cast for Vanity Fair’s comedy issue, which he guest-edited. Here are the highlights:

Casting James Franco as Daniel Desario

Jake Kasdan (writer, “The Little Things”): The first impression was “This guy’s going to be an enormous movie star. We should grab him immediately.”

Judd Apatow: We didn’t think of him as handsome. We thought his mouth was too big for his face and he seemed perfect to be a small-town cool guy who wasn’t as cool as he thought he was. When all the women in our office started talking about how gorgeous he was, me and [show creator Paul] Feig started laughing because we just didn’t see it.

James Franco: I knew that Paul [Feig] had grown up just outside of Detroit, and I found his high school. I ran into his audio/videoteacher, who showed me where Paul used to sit in the A/V room. I saw all the kids at summer school, and there was this guy the teacher pointed out to me, this kind of rough-around-the-edges-looking kid. He had a kind face, but he looked like he’d been in a little bit of trouble. And I remember thinking, “Ah, there’s Daniel.”

Casting Jason Segel as Nick Andopolis

Judd Apatow: I loved writing for Jason. That’s what I felt like in high school. I felt goofy and ambitious and not sure if I had any talent, and I would be in love with these women and didn’t actually know if they liked me that much. I’d never know if I was being charming or a stalker. Jason really captured that desperation I felt when I was younger.

Casting Seth Rogen as Ken Millerz

Judd Apatow: Everything he said made us laugh. The smart, sweet, grounded person we now know him to be seemed impossible back then. He seemed like a mad, troublemaking Canadian lunatic who was quiet and angry and might kill you.

Seth Rogen: At the time, I kind of had a chip on my shoulder, you know, because I hadn’t gotten any girls to sleep with me yet. I was incredibly angry and repressed, and I think they saw me as this kind of weird, sarcastic guy and started writing towards that. But then they got to know me and saw me as a nice guy, and that revealed itself as the show progressed.

Jeff Judah: Seth was stuck studying for his GED and wasn’t happy about that, because he wanted to hang out with Franco and Jason and Martin.

Seth Rogen: I dropped out of high school when I started doing the show. I told them I was doing correspondence school from Canada and just wrote “Superbad” all day.

On Perfecting Their Characters

Jason Segel: We would get the script on a Friday, and Seth and James and I would get together at my house every Sunday, without fail, and do the scenes over and over and improve them and really think about them. We loved the show. And we took the opportunity really, really seriously.

Judd Apatow: We used to say, “Two out of 10 of Franco’s improvs are good, but those two are just historic.”

James Franco: I remember Judd saying, “You guys are acting too cool. You’re acting like young guys who just got cast in a TV show. We need dudes that are a little insecure.” He said, “We’re going to show you your audition, because this is what we liked.” So I watched it and I’m like, “Oh, man, I’m horrible.” It was so goofy. But I think what I didn’t like is one of the better aspects of Daniel. I maybe took myself too seriously when I was a young actor.